OUTSTANDING ATTITUDE McIntyreMama!!! Any other votes for hitting it immediately???

So, today was core & cardio! 310 HIIT calories burnt while dreadmill hill climbing which was a real “bear” with my skinned up knee from trail diving Saturday but it got done along with grinding 33,440 LBs of core iron!

Due to shoulder PT first thing AM Wednesday I'm supposed to join in with a PiYo Strength Fusion class Wednesday evening instead! Pilates, Yoga & Dumbbells combined with Griz, his bum knee, lack of flexibility OR gracefulness ought to be a riot!

Rock on crew!

Dave, I saw pics of the knee of FB. Ouch! The class sounds interesting.

My trainer sent me a new ST plan that I started yesterday. It was much more to my liking and didn't take long to complete. So, got that done Mon. plus a 50 min. walk later in the day.

Today was cardio, with another 50 min. walk, hills included.

I'm doing better on the eating. Having some cravings, but am doing my best to ignore them.

It's up to the team as to when they want to start another challenge. I'll still be working out, challenge or not. If some people want a week off, that's ok by me. Chime in team!

Burning a few extra cals this week spring cleaning the house. Off to do our taxes later today. Let's hope for a refund so I can put it towards my other goal for the year...reducing my debt!

Kim

Hey Gang! It's been awhile since my last post...but that doesn't mean I've taken my foot off the gas pedal!  I've read every post of all you guys who are active on this forum (usually via email on my phone) and y'all keep inspiring me with your dedication, some even battling a heck of a lot of adversity to stick to it (Roosed...keep on rockin' brother!).

As for me,  I'm still at the gym first thing every morning (otherwise Mr.Murphy and his ridiculous law kicks in) and still eating pretty much on plan and the results are really starting to be obvious to the eye.  So far I'm down 28.5 lbs since Jan3...that's a 10.73% weight loss so far...good for 2nd place in my 16-man biggest loser contest, 1.62% off the lead. Clothes are falling off, the gut is vaporizing and the tree-trunk neck is slimming down.  Funny thing about the neck, I went to a father/daughter dance with my youngest a few weeks ago and wore one of my dress shirts and a tie for the first time in months (you know, the big-man shirts).  Put it on, buttoned it up, tied the necktie...and you could still see my white t-shirt in the gap between the shirt collar and my neck. Wow!  Haven't done measurements in awhile, but that was significant to me and made me feel really good about my progress.  "Winning?" LOL

Roosed/McIntyreMama - I for one am with ya on rolling right into C2. Even at the good clip I'm going at now, I'm not going to be happy with calling it quits after C1.  That and the fact that our biggest loser final weigh-in isn't until April 30th, so I need to keep this train rolling. No time off for me baby!

Coming down the stretch I'd like to try to be more active on the forum, but that's one place where Murphy still seems to own me.  I'll try though.  All you guys and gals who are still plugging away should try to chime in too.  I, like Roosed, would like to know who we've still got with us and how it's going.

Good luck to y'all!  Keep drivin' this train hard Griz! LOL.

Mark

Hi all!  

I started 2/14 and am posting with the 2/14 crew.  I noticed a lot of us are getting discouraged because we have followed the BFL method extremely closely without seeing much of a result.  We are all on our 5th week.  When did you guys start seeing a difference?

Thank you!

Glad to see the Griz "at one with nature".  That sounded like a zen worthy day on the trail

I will be following this group into the next challenge.  I've built out my maintenance plan with more "trending down" goals than shocking the system.  

I stepped on the scale today and was pleasantly surprised to see a 185 staring back at me.  This after a week on the road (and that jello shot and N'awlins food on Mardi Gras).  I am sure it was due to two days of intense yard work.  I cut down two 40 ficus trees over the weekend - climb, cut, haul, repeat...)

Tomorrow is my big day.  I get my annual physical with all of the blood work to see if the diet has paid off.  I am most interested in the cholesterol number to validate if my oatmeal/veggie/fish oil regime has been worth it.  I look for an increase in the HDL and a decrease in the LDL and Triglycerides.

...and by the way, I have a sleeve of Girl Scout Thin Mints in the freezer ready for my March 25th celebration.  MacMaMa is right about the AA folks, but these are THIN mints.  It says thin in the name.  How bad can they be, right ;-)

Cheers, Y'all

Rick

Mark! Great news.  I still have my money on you for the biggest loser winner.  Keep at it you are making us proud.

@Stasia - It is frustrating in the middle of the challenge, but getting through the first month is the hardest part of an initial challenge (I've gone through 6 formal challenges now).  The most important thing to remember is that while you are burning fat, your body is also building muscle, so from a weight number, you may be breaking even, but from an overall health perception you are winning.  I think that a paradigm shift occurs in the final month when your metabolic rate finally increases to the point that you are burning fat even at rest due to the increased muscle mass.  Best of luck to you and your crew.

Rick

You guys are just making me laugh so hard with the animal prints!

I am closer to the end of my challenge...but I will see all of you at the end!

Frick...babe...you should have told me you were coming to NOLA...I would have met you in person!

I finished week 10 on Sunday....I can't believe I have only 11 days left.  Photos on Sunday the 27th!  I have updated everything on my profile but won't add additional pictures until I get them back from my photoshoot.

Mark-28 lbs. and burning the fat! Awesome!

Fridk-185!!! Woo hoo! Let us know how your numbers look when you get the results. I take several meds for my cholesterol (family history) and my numbers were up in Dec. My goal for July is to have the numbers back under 190.

As for the thin mints I believe a sleeve is a serving, which is why I didn’t buy any this year! I think it’s a great way to celebrate the end of our challenge. Have one for me will you?

We got out taxes done last night and will be getting a nice refund that will go towards the debt I mentioned. Now, hubby decided to stop at the bar on the way home and promptly bought me a beer. One of my biggest hurdles is to say “no thank you” especially after it’s been purchased. OK, I could have had the one and stopped there, but I ended up having 3 total. Not much compared to the days when we used to go out regularly. But it certainly isn’t on my plan and I should have said no to more than one. I need to work on not getting into the mindset of “I haven’t seen these friends in 6  mos, what will it hurt”! Ugh! I haven’t done well on this challenge or the one prior, but I’m finally feeling an attitude shift and I can’t let situations like that get in my way.

*Not sure this part of my post will interest the guys, but the gals will understand.*

I spent my birthday money on new clothes today. I think part of my crappy attitude of late has been wearing clothes that I’m sick of and that don’t make me feel all that great. I didn’t spend a ton of money, but I’m happy about getting some things that will make me feel better about myself.

I’m off to walk. It’s a glorious 66 degrees in Iowa. Not the norm for March!

Kim

@ Cajun...I was a little northeast of Nawliz (like atlanta), but if I'm ever there, I'll touch base for a cafe du monde

benget, benyay, doughnut (on the day off, of course)

@Kim, those thin mints are soooo good and bad 4 = 150 calories and 20 g carbs.  I heard my son complain that I stole half of the box.  I just hope he doesn't find my stash before 3/25.  I get my numbers back next week for the blood work

For the record, I had to fast before the lipid panel, so I actually hit 183.6 lbs which puts my BMI officially in the "normal" range.  I hate that Fu@%!#& index so much - it is nice to pwn it....

I had a great run on the beach, dodging Canadians.  Sprinting for 1/3 of the return mile felt good. 

9 days and counting...

TGIF CREW! We’ve just got one more full week & a Saturday to go!!! Sounds like you’re all doing OUTSTANDING! This has been the MOST AWESOME CREW to cruise with!

As for me, 26,060 LBs of UBWO iron got ground today the PT gurette’s way followed by a freaking COLD shower since the gyms water heater must’ve went on spring break sometime last night LOL! What a way to start the day!!! BUT HEY, its springtime coming into a full moon so Griz pretty much needed one anyhow LOL AND BTW!!! I finally broke the barrier!!! I've been drifting between 346-351 since we started, pretty much maintaining this challenege which given the personal swirl...I'll take it, BUT today I finally got down to 345! WooHoo!!! Probably was the 24.8 miles hiked / walked last weekend!

HEY!!! Its FRIDAY, its SPRINGTIME, the weekend weather is supposed to be PERFECT & we’re also in for THE MOST AWESOME full moon in years! Gotta be a 10 on the perfect scale, right?!?!?

BTW, regarding our next BfL challenge. As I’ve mentioned, I’ve had reservations about chartering the next round as I really feel I haven’t given this AWESOME CREW the motivation you’ve deserved BUT a few of you have politely kicked me squarely in the @zz, the one part of the Griz that’s actually already slim LOL, and I guess it’ll work out okay BUT, with me there’s always a but isn’t there LMBO, AnneB has graciously offered to kinda co-captain for the next round on the gals side & I was hoping Frick or one of our other experienced motivators might just chime in for the guys side JUST IN CASE I get too derailed in the coming weeks to keep up properly. Co-captaining requires NOTHING MORE than joining in, reading your fellow challengers posts & chiming in as regularly as you can! What say ye?!?!? Also, regarding our next start date, I have a dear friend who’s on the BfL fence. I’ve given her a copy of “the book” explained the foundational issues, got her a success journal & she’s getting closer! HOWEVER, she’s gonna be on a cruise the week of the 28th & I don’t want her to feel odd about joining in late so, IF y’all don’t mind, I’d really like to have our official kickoff be 03 April 2011, giving us a 1 week recovery period between challenges. NOW! For those of you worried that you might fall off the wagon waiting, if you’re willing I’ll set the post up next week and you can just keep on trucking! Call it a practice / warm up week if you will!!! Sound acceptable? Just want to try and get a dear friend on board as I know it’ll be amazing for her if we can just bring her along!

Just chime in & let me know! If this works we’ll either be “The Q2 Crew” or “The Springtime Sizzlers” Your call! Chime in crew!!! Let’s here what’s up with y’all & what you think about the next round!!!

Dave, good for you for kicking the weight plateau! You've been hitting it hard!

I'll get on here as often as possible for our next go round. I'm going to stick to plan on the in between week, only because I just got on plan. I think it's great of you to help your friend. We'd love to have her join in! Apr. 3 is fine with me for a start date.

Just finished a great upper body workout. I have a long to do list I need to tackle today. Only 3 more days of spring break. I'm hoping I can keep up with all my workouts when I go back to school next week.

TGIF!

Kim

@Roosed - I can just see the Griz howling at the moon this weekend! LOL.  As for me, I'm fine with holding off a week on officially starting Q2 for the sake of having your friend join us. That'll give me a week to experiment a little with some golf strength and flexibility programs I've had my eye on trying. With spring almost here, my golf game is in need of some much needed work and now I've got new muscle where before there wasn't much to work with (;-)...so that could be a good week for me to try out some of that stuff.

I also like the ring of "The Q2 Crew" for our next adventure! I understand you wanting to kinda take a co-captain role, but I know you'll be around, active as ever, kicking us squarely in the pants when we need it! LOL. With my sporadic posts I don't think I'm the answer, but surely Frick or someone will be another "go-to" guy. Thanks for being a great captain for my first challenge and I'm looking forward to Q2 with you and hopefully many more of our Q1 comrades!

You guys have a great weekend!

Mark

Happy Friday!  Boom ~Chica~ Woot

     Looks like you guys are doing awesome Week 11 coming to a finish~Nice to see that everyone is doing well,

Hey Dave, (( Griz )) I made it back here, Sorry I haven't been that active on here but been busy with the new home business,~ been doing workouts and eating clean tho, Missed all of you guys One more week left for this Challenge, I will be doing another one, for me to reach my Goal I have in mind.

next round!!! Griz ~ I'm in with ya and will wait for your friend to start. starting Q2 for the sake of having your friend join us, Is good with me. =)

Rick-

Thanks so much for the help!  I am going to pass on the information to the group.  I'm sure it will increase moral!  Take care!  :)

Stasia

Hey all,

I wanted to let you know that I'm still in this amazing journey with you.  I have some updates.  Thursday and Friday I had a bit of a moment where I got down on myself because I felt that I hadn't reached many of the goals I had set when I started BFL.

I am not nearly as cut and defined as I thought I would be and my weight has barely budged the whole time.  Now I'm not going to minimize my successes because I certainly have had them!!  I am stronger and fitter then I was when I started BFL.  I've lost inches as well.  

I racked my brain because I was doing BFL by the book.  I had the diet down. I had the exercise down.  I only missed 3 Cardio workouts the entire time and my Free days have been mostly just a free meal since I began the program.  

What I decided was that my mind had not yet transformed.  I'm still a fat girl in my head.  I know that until I address that and find a way to shed my negative self image the last of my fat isn't going to leave.  I started googling Bill Phillips and found he's gone on to write a new book and has a new website.  Apparently he's taken BFL and tweaked it and added in things that were missing.

The day I found his site I also saw that he was extending the deadline for his Transformation contest to this weekend.  It starts on Monday and may be the last one his site will run this year.  I took it as a Godwink and I'm going to start it the same week I'll be finishing up my 12th week of BFL.

I want you all to know that I'm seeing BFL through to the end of my challenge but that I'm going to give Transformation a try rather then starting a second challenge.  Hopefully the new program will address the Mind/Spirit aspect that I feel I need.  

Anyhow keep on keeping on!  I'm happy that I've gotten to go through this with all of you and will be honored to call all of you fellow Champions for finishing the challenge with me.

Love Shoshie